New Zealand Plans Pike River Mine Entry 3 Years After Disaster

New Zealand’s government will pay
for a plan to re-enter the Pike River coal mine, where an
explosion almost three years ago killed 29 workers in the
nation’s worst mining accident in 96 years.

The proposal is for a staged exploration of the main tunnel
at the site near Greymouth on the west coast of the South
Island, Energy Minister Simon Bridges said today in a statement.
Teams will progress as far as a rockfall in the shaft that
blocks the way to the mine workings where the men were operating
at the time of the explosion.

“This is a highly complex and technical operation and it
will be carefully managed in stages, with a risk assessment
undertaken at each stage,” Bridges said. “Our criteria are
that any re-entry into the tunnel up to the rock fall is safe,
technically feasible and financially credible.”

The government will pay the estimated NZ$7.2 million ($6
million) cost of the plan, which was approved by the board of
Solid Energy New Zealand Ltd., the government-owned miner that
bought the site after Pike River Coal Co. went into
receivership, Bridges said.

A methane-gas explosion on Nov. 19, 2010, trapped and
probably killed the 29 workers at the mine. Further blasts over
the following five days frustrated efforts to reach the men, and
the mine was closed because it was too dangerous to enter.

Pike River Coal was found guilty in April of nine breaches
of health and safety laws including those relating to
ventilation and methane management. A New Zealand court awarded
victims compensation of about NZ$110,000 each in July, adding
that as the company was in receivership it may be unable to make
that payment.